Elevated public relations

Interesting stat: In 2009, more than 65 percent of public relations firms reported selling crisis communications services to clients and from 2009-12, firms reported that crisis communications accounted for 5 percent of their revenue, according to the Council of Public Relations Firms.

Last summer, the Up Agency worked with the Arizona Craft Brewer’s Guild on coordinating a fund-raising effort to benefit the Prescott Firefighter’s Charities in the wake of the Yarnell Hill fire.

At around the same time, the Scottsdale public relations firm was also working with the City of Prescott in battling the negative attention it received surrounding questions over the amount of benefits owed to the families of the fallen Granite Mountain Hotshots, who were killed in that fire last June.

And while many small agencies rarely find themselves in this unusual and challenging position of balancing traditional public relations with high-profile crisis communication under a single roof, it’s one that Up founders Stacy Pearson and Tiffany Shultz are comfortable embracing — thanks to their respective strengths.

“Stacy handles the crisis management and she does that so well. I love planning the events and I love the production itself … the action of ‘hurry up and get it done,’ ” Shultz said. “We are the yin and yang.”

Since launching in 2010, Up’s clients have run the gamut from large attractions like the Barrett-Jackson Car Collector Auction and Arizona Beer Week to nonprofits like the Arizona Humane Society and the YWCA. There have been a few political campaigns, including Paul Penzone’s bid for the Maricopa County Sheriff post in 2012.

The relationship between public relations and journalism is symbiotic, even though the industries often appear to battle each other. But the founding pair’s journalism background, they say, has been key to their young business’ success. In fact, they won’t hire anyone that doesn’t have newsroom experience.

“You can’t speak the right language if you haven’t been a journeyman somewhere,” said Pearson, a newspaper reporter and editor prior to entering the public relations world 10 years before starting Up. “The information I give to a journalist puts both of our integrity on the line, and you don’t understand that unless you’ve worked in a newsroom.”

Shultz was a television news producer and reporter before meeting Pearson while working at their previous public relations agency.

“I don’t think you can be successful (without it) because you don’t understand what the reporters are looking for and you don’t understand deadlines. I always get back to reporters quickly because I remembered how important that was,” she said.

Honesty and swiftness are other key factors, especially when Up is called in to alleviate a public relations nightmare. Unlike the world portrayed in popular television shows where spin doctors manipulate the truth or intentionally mislead people, Pearson said most of her work is improving access between her client and the media instead of being an obstacle, even when all the facts aren’t favorable for her client.

“Ninety percent of the problem is the reaction to the initial problem. If you react quickly with honesty, people forgive you for mistakes … they don’t forgive you for hiding the truth,” Pearson said. “It’s a sprint to get your message out as honestly and quickly as possible. Everyone has the right to get their side of the story out.”

This was the formula Prescott City Attorney Jon Paladini needed last summer, when the city received backlash over benefits owed to the families of the firefighters who died in the Yarnell blaze. .

“There was a lot of negative attention about the city, and we were getting beat up in the media,” Paladini said. “There were a lot of issues as to what the city could and could not do, and we needed to get the whole story out.”

Less than four days after hiring Up, Paladini said, public perception changed in the city’s favor. He credited Pearson’s ability to understand the big picture, not get tunnel vision in the midst of an emotional situation and do quick work that ensured misinformation didn’t linger.

“She has the ability to think the whole thing through, apply it and be able to communicate (facts) to the media in a way that’s thoughtful and compassionate,” Paladini said. “We couldn’t have accomplished that turnaround by ourselves, and I don’t know of anybody else who could’ve done it as quickly.”

Meanwhile, the Arizona brewing community came up with its Heroes 19 brown ale that raised more than $60,000 for charity. Shultz said it remains one of her favorite client projects.

“Every brewery willing to donate time, hops, collateral,” Shultz recalled. “Businesses calling and asking to carry the brew, the media support and the community support to raise money was unbelievable.”

Mother Road Brewery founder Michael Marquess, who is also past president of the Arizona Craft Brewer’s Guild, has worked with Up for years on various beer festivals as well as projects including Heroes 19.

“They’ve been really great and very instrumental with communications as well as initiatives,” said Marquess, whose brewery is in Flagstaff. “Tiffany is really easy to work with. We’ll come up with something crazy and she’ll say, ‘OK’ and make it happen.”

At their previous agency, Pearson approached Shultz about starting their own firm. Although Shultz hadn’t considered being a business owner, the idea made sense.

“We fit; we had a synergy. We didn’t have to speak much and we could understand what the other one was thinking. We could finish each other’s sentences,” Shultz said.

Up landed prestigious Barrett Jackson as its first client. In its first year, Up attracted 12 new clients and projects, with that number nearly doubling for each of the following two years, according to company data. In 2013, 45 new clients and projects were added to Up’s roster.

But being new business owners came with a learning curve. Figuring out billing and collections, sitting through lag time between invoicing and payment and compensating employees took a lot of getting used to.

“Worrying about someone else’s income is something I never had to worry about before. You’re responsible for their Christmases, whether they can afford a great vacation or they have to stay in town,” Pearson said. “I’m very attuned to making sure I live up to that responsibility.”

Constantly working to remain at the top of their game, is part of maintaining Up’s success.

“PR and marketing are changing, and things that were true a year ago aren’t today,” Shultz said. “We change things up and think out of the box.”

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